We were fortunate to have tickets to an open-air performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream staged in Framlingham Castle this week. Doors opened at 6pm for a 7.30 performance to allow time to picnic. I looked at the set for Shakespeare’s well-known play, performed over so many years in all sorts of places. I contemplated…

Last summer this rose put on so much growth and the blooms were so heavy that several the vine wires that support it were broken. In the winter I was determined to get the better of it; the renewed wires are stronger and from the outset the necessary support was in place so the flowers…

A few years ago, we were privileged to spend a few hours in a small boat in the Atlantic, off the Azores, watching whales. It was the end of the season, there was a good swell and with hindsight, we may have been insane to take the risk. One of my memories of being an…

But there are walls that keep us all divided;we fence each other in with hate and war.Fear is the bricks-and-mortar of our prison,our pride of self the prison coat we wear.           Fred Kaan (1929-2009) translated from the Swedish of Anders Frostenson (1906-2006)English translation © 1974 Stainer & Bell Ltd. Hallin Fell is not a significant Wainwright…

I wonder how many of us have spent time in airport departure lounges dreaming of what is next. Whether going on holiday or working, outbound or returning home the world of the airport is like nothing else in so far as we are bound by some of the tightest security we will ever find in…

In 1991 the United Reformed Church published a new hymn book; Rejoice and Sing was welcomed by many and criticised by many too for all the hymns that had been ‘left out’. I soon found that there was new hymnody there, or new to me anyway, that broadened my mind. Early on I came across…

I will never forget returning from a short break in Guernsey early in 2001. We drove off the ferry in Weymouth and on the car radio I heard about an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease. Some of you may remember the things that followed. Farmed and hobby livestock, wild animals and domesticated; anything with…

There are several references in the Gospels to Jesus and water. Saint Matthew (chapter 8) records an occasion when he was busy and tired and crossed the lake to avoid the crowds, but he was soon found again. In Framlingham we have our famous castle and historic church, idyllic market hill and Saturday market. We…

Nichola and I have known this path for over 25 years. We used it as a highway for the buggy when the children were tiny, it was a training ground for carrying them in the backpack as they grew bigger and a Sunday walk later on again. Sometimes it is very wet and once last…

You may not be prepared to pay for the view from my desk but it never ceases to interest me. In these ordinary trees I see the changing seasons and although sometimes I have a surprise when something like a woodpecker comes to call, some of my best entertainment is provided by the wood pigeons.…